IPL 2022: 5 Players who did well in first few matches but faded away

3. Anuj Rawat

The youngster Anuj Rawat shot into the limelight by scoring 88* off 58 balls, comprising seven sixes against Saurashtra in the 2019/20 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He was bought by Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2020 but got an opportunity in a total of two games in the 2021 edition only. In the 2022 mega auction, Rawat was picked by RCB as a backup wicketkeeper to Dinesh Karthik.

With his fine form in domestic cricket, he was slotted into the opening slot along with RCB captain Faf du Plessis. He started with 21 against PBKS in his first fixture, and then the scores in the subsequent fixtures read 0 and 26. But, he returned with a terrific knock of 66 against MI, and put up a stand of 80 runs with Virat Kohli and won the game for the team.

But he gradually lost his form and could not provide a good start to the team. Rawat’s last three scores read as 0, 4, and 0 which paved way for the team management to drop him from the Playing XI.